End of the road : Cul-de-sac : American dream or planning nightmare?
Posted on Sunday, May 18, 2008
Cul-de-sacs have long been an iconic feature of suburban life. Heralded as the safest neighborhood street, culde-sacs are still a big selling point for many home buyers.
But in recent years, the popular fixture of subdivision development has gained criticism from urban planners and has even been banned in some cities.
Leif Olson, long range planner for the city of Fayetteville, said cities have been debating the value of such streets for the past 10 years.
"The unfortunate thing about culde-sac development is that it doesn't lend itself to connecting with anything else. Instead it's creating an isolated enclave of like uses, and it doesn't allow for traffic flow to penetrate through the neighborhood," Olson said.
The cul-de-sac became very popular after World War II when America became a car culture, Olson said, and during the era of cheap oil.
"There was no disincentive not to build residential subdivisions that way," he said. "The problem is that in a lot of large cul-de-sac subdivisions, there's no way to get to any of your daily needs without getting in your car and getting out onto the arterial roadway, creating congestion even to take care of the most menial tasks like picking up your dry cleaning or going to get a gallon of milk."
The Fayetteville planning staff is proposing an ordinance that would discourage developers from building dead-end residential streets.
The language of the ordinance states that cul-de-sacs or dead-end streets should only be used in situations of difficult topography or existing barriers.
"What we're trying to do is have a tool for our current planners so that when somebody comes into our office and wants to develop a piece of land, we can direct them into leaving street stub outs in appropriate locations and developing a connected street pattern in the development that they propose," Olson said. "It would be used as a tool to try to guide the development community and property owners into a more sustainable development pattern to allow for alternate forms of transportation such as bicycling and walking, so you could actually get to some destinations without having to get into a car."
He pointed to the downtown Fayetteville area as a good example of a street grid that promotes connectivity.
"If you're at the university, you can walk to the post office and get a bite to eat on your way back. You don't necessarily have to get in your car and drive to do some of the things you would do on a normal basis," he said. "In conjunction with the trail system being developed, we're trying to think more proactively about creating a more livable environment."
Olson said he doesn't know how the concept will go over in Fayetteville.
"I think you have people that either really don't like them or really do," he said. "From a planning perspective, it's about creating complete, compact and connected neighborhoods, which is a goal of 2025."
One of the main arguments for cul-de-sacs is that they reduce through-traffic in residential areas.
Alderman Bobby Ferrell said he already receives calls and e-mails from citizens concerned about traffic cutting through their neighborhoods. If the city establishes connectivity in its neighborhoods, he said, the next step is going to be the neighbors calling and asking for a speed barrier.
Some city planners argue however that cul-de-sacs cause increased traffic on the streets that aren't cul-de-sacs in the neighborhood. When there is one way in and one way out, Olson said, all of the traffic comes out on one street, creating a choke point.
That's one reason cities such as Austin, Texas, Portland, Ore., and Charlotte, N. C., have adopted ordinances discouraging the construction of dead-end streets. Olson said the concept may not make everybody happy but it allows the city to plan neighborhoods that are in line with the city's goals.
"It's coding for what we want. It's saying this is how we'd like to see the development happen," he said.
If the ordinance passed, a cul-de-sac or dead-end street would be considered as a special case. A developer could request a waiver, Olson said, by showing that the area has difficult topography.
In some cases there are natural barriers that can't be bridged, such as a 100 year floodplain or a creek, he said.
"In hilly terrain, you're going to have situations where dead-end streets make sense. " City Attorney Kit Williams said homeowners have always been allowed the option of building on a cul-de-sac. "The big thing that concerns me here is we could be making decisions for citizens," he said. "You would be telling citizens that if they want to build a house, they can't do it on a cul-desac anymore because we've decided that's not the way streets should be designed.
Curb cuts The second part of the planning staff's proposed ordinance deals with the concept of access management.
Another goal of City Plan 2025, Olson said, is to create a safer environment for the transportation network and ensure access to future development is planned in the safest and most effective manner. Olson said that could be done by reducing the number of conflicts or points along the road where vehicles are turning left by limiting the amount of curb cuts or access points into a development.
North College Avenue is an example of a street with numerous points of conflict.
"It happens over time," he said. "Over 30 or 40 years of curb cuts, you end up with a really conflicted roadway. "
In contrast, Olson said development in the CMN Business Park was planned with controlled access. Access points and curb cuts are located far from the intersections, he said.
Future developments and street improvements could also be planned using access management standards.
"Thinking about all the street improvements that are going to happen, now is the time to get it right," Olson said.
The proposed ordinance would limit the number of curb cuts allowed for new development. Under the new guidelines, a curb cut would be allowed for every 500 feet on an arterial road and must be located a minimum of 250 feet from the center of an intersection or driveway.
Williams said there is a potential legal problem with the ordinance.
"If you own a parcel along a road, you have an access easement to that road," he said. "Even if you're on a corner lot and one road is a collector and the other is an arterial, you have access easements to both roads."
If the city denies a curb cut, it would basically be condemning the access easement and would then owe the property owner the value of that easement, he said.
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